Oz and Maddie sleep together in our laundry room. It is quite large and they have three nice beds to choose from and can sleep together if they want to. Riley and Oliver sleep with hubbie and me. Oliver sleeps in his bed on the floor beside our bed and Riley sleeps at the foor of our bed and doesn't move all night. Oz and Maddie are more restless or have to sleep on top of me and then I don't sleep which is why they are relegated to the laundry room. Up until about a month ago, I could hear Oz start stirring around 7 a.m. which is the time of morning my eyes pop open anyway. Now however, he has started scratching on the door, barking, and whining beginning around 5:30-6:00. I have a blind on the window in there so it's pretty dark. He has never had an accident in there so I don't think he's getting up early because he needs to go out. Unfortunately, if I get him up and take him out then, all of them will want to go out and then eat right away and I'm not quite ready to start my day then - so I just put the pillow over my head and try to ignore him. I thought that by ignoring his behavior it would stop since it wasn't being reinforced. However, it is consistent every morning. And he is a big whiner!! The laundry room is right next to our bedroom. Also, I have been taking him for long walks (3+ miles) late in the afternoon thinking it might help to wear him out. Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Kizzys Mum

19th May 2009, 03:11 PM

Could it be that he's hungry and thinks if he wakes you up, he'll get fed?! We don't feed ours immediately but they're quite lazy early in the morning (with the exception of Kizzy) so we've not really had this problem. Hope you can get it sorted!

pippa

19th May 2009, 04:08 PM

My Pippin is much the same in the summer months even though we have blinds and the room is fairly dark.

I just ignore him and get up at the usual time which is 7 even though he starts around 6ish as if I get up to him then the other two are up then also wanting to go out and then eat.

It is annoying but I also found in the past that if I get up to him at 6 then it could be 5.30 when he starts the next day.

He is always the first of mine to ask for food morning and evening and long walks.late walks,extra food,lots of games, don't work in summer he just wakes up earlier.

So no solutions for you, sorry but I do know how you feel.

Brian M

19th May 2009, 04:38 PM

Hi

I found the perfect solution as my girls wake up about 6.00 am 7/7 ,so Dawn gets up and the girls then come upstairs to join me till its my time to get up.:)

Love my Cavaliers

19th May 2009, 04:50 PM

I think Oz is just one those dogs with a raring-to-go attitude about life. He is always up for anything. It's nice that he has such a zest for life, but really annoying at 5:30-6:00, especially since I don't have to be up until 7. Brian, I wish he would just come in and join me in bed until I decide to get up, but I'm afraid he'd be all over me and the other dogs, barking, trying to get them to play, and whining for food. Maybe I should move where they sleep so I don't hear him. Only problem with that is if either Oz or Maddie really needed to go out in the middle of the night (like Riley did twice last night for diarrhea) then I wouldn't hear them and could be greeted with a nasty clean-up job in the morning.

chloe92us

19th May 2009, 05:02 PM

Ollie was doing this for a brief period (he sleeps in our bed, and also has the "zest" for life, as you described!). He would start getting up and standing on me and trying to get the others to play at around 6:30. I am NOT a morning person.

What I did, and I hope you won't see this as cruel, but as soon as he started I would put him in his crate (which we keep in our room b/c sometimes Casey likes to nap in there) and put a blanket over it. He learned in about 3 days that if he got up early, he wasn't going to get to play and it worked like a charm.

linderbelle

19th May 2009, 06:03 PM

Hi Bev:

Is there another room that is farther from your room where you could put them and shut the door. I know when we got Abbey and she cried the first few nights we put her crate in another room and shut the door so we could get some sleep. If you're like me once you're woken up at that time of the morning its almost impossible to go back to sleep. A thing about old age I think--lol.

pippa

19th May 2009, 06:49 PM

Hi again Bev..I think Pippin is the same,he's one of those 'Hi it's morning everybody up'.

They do come up to me if hubby gets up early and I lie on on my day off which is everyday now as I am just out of hospital after an op so off work for a few months,but, he will not settle until he's fed and I refuse to feed him before 7.

It's probably easier for me to ignore him as he is downstairs and we are upstairs, hubby can't get back asleep with him barking though.
I sneaked down once to see if he was ok as he was barking and crying he didn't hear me and I found him trying to wake DJ and get him up to play he knows not to even try with Gus.....That's half our trouble this year as DJ has only been with us a year and is Pippin's new best friend so as soon as PIppin is awake he's over to DJ and wanting to start the day with a play..DJ just lies there looking at him:)

Karlin

19th May 2009, 06:59 PM

Having them in crates would probably stop the problem as he could then not scratch on the door and the smaller space, with say a lightweight blanket or sheet in a dark colour over it, will likely keep him calmer and quiet. A lot of dogs are much happier in a smaller, cosy place at night. Or put them in a large xpen in the laundry room to keep him from scratching (won;t hep the whining though).

As you have the other two in your room, if you crated these two in your room you'd also probably find the problem would end but they'd not be able to wake you up by climbing on you.

meljoy

19th May 2009, 09:30 PM

We've had this exact same problem over the last few weeks. Leo is usually up at 7aam but went through a spell of waking at 5:mad:am When I came down to him he's run around like a loon happy to see me then curl up on my lap and go back to sleep!!!!!!

Anyway I ignored it and he's now back to 7 am again.
Its not easy to do when they're barking and scratching at the door.

Good luck

Mel

heather r

19th May 2009, 10:24 PM

Unfortunately my husband likes to get up by 5:45 AM-6AM so Abigail is learning his bad habit:swear: (I prefer 7AM). Earlier when she was waking us up earlier, we put her and her crate in a powder room far from our room ,put a blanket over it and closed the door. She usually went back to sleep.

Hope something works! Since our last golden died 3 years ago, we haven't let either of our dogs sleep in our room.

Heather R

hwowen

19th May 2009, 10:52 PM

I've noticed the same thing now summer's coming. I have to go downstairs at a round 5.30am, open the door to let him into the outside pen to wee, and then mum goes back to sleep on the sofa until 7. Jasper now knows the routine, & will happily lay down next to the sofa & sleep too! I can sleep pretty much anywhere though - cars, trains, buses, chairs - my friend has a saying that I could fall asleep on a washing line! :badgrin:

Lani

20th May 2009, 12:57 PM

My canine alarm clocks wake me up at 5:30. This is an hour earlier than I need to wake up. It used to be 6:30, but I guess it's getting light earlier.

They seem to be impacted by the light coming in the room (more so than me!). I've been thinking of trying light blocking blinds. Couldn't hurt at least .... Maybe I can trick them into thinking it's still midnight and there for sleep until 7 or 7:30 on weekends. :lol:

Love my Cavaliers

20th May 2009, 03:00 PM

Black out blinds haven't worked for my crew Lani. That's what I have in the laundry room where Oz sleeps. Maybe dogs are just more attuned to nature's cycles than we are (or at least than I am).

pippa

20th May 2009, 05:00 PM

I think Pippin maybe hears the birds chirping.

kmatt

20th May 2009, 05:30 PM

I find two ways that help extremely well. first is the late night pee. And I mean around 1:30 to 2am. Anna then falls asleep next to me till around 9:30 :)

Second is that humans recognize daylights savings time. Dogs however DO NOT. They go by the birds and the sun so I've put up blackout shades and that is what we do. Everything is 99% dark and we can't see to get up. Means now Anna doesn't see light and I get to sleep:thnku::thnku:.

Love my Cavaliers

21st May 2009, 02:37 PM

Well, thanks to all your replies and suggestions, I put Oz and Maddie to bed in one large crate in the laundry room. Both of them went right in without complaining even though it had been quite a while since either of them had been in there. The first night, Oz still woke at 5:30 and barked and whined until I got up at 6:45. This morning however was a delight. Oz didn't make a peep until I came into the laundry room to get them. He was actually still lying down!!! We'll see what the next few days bring. Crate training is truly amazing. I should remember that as the first line of defense for almost anything!

heather r

21st May 2009, 09:29 PM

Glad that your two pups are sleeping later! The crate is a great help and provides them security. Our golden used her's until she was a 1 1/2 years.

We'll see how long before our Miss Abigail will be free of crate when we're gone andat night.